


Black

by DoctorBilly



Series: Rouge et Noir [3]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Billyverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-24
Updated: 2015-08-24
Packaged: 2018-04-17 00:45:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4646091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoctorBilly/pseuds/DoctorBilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another in the series of vignettes. Billy learns something about himself, while learning something about Luce.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Black

**Author's Note:**

> Tag: casual racism

"I won't be able to make it. I'm sorry."

"But you've got to be there! Who'll start the dancing off if you don't?"

"Is that my main function then? Dance floor filler?" Luce laughs. "I'm sorry. I've got to work."

Billy makes a face.

"It's a Saturday. They can't make you work on a Saturday…"

"I'll be out of the country, Bill."

"Somewhere nice?"

Lestrade passes round coffee mugs. Luce takes his and smiles his approval. Lestrade makes good coffee.

"Back to Reykjavik. Spending a fortnight checking weather station data."

Lestrade grins.

"Working holiday? Never been to Iceland. Seen pictures, of course. Spectacular-looking scenery. What's the social life like?"

"All right, I suppose. I don't go out much. Get fed up being stared at."

Billy frowns.

"Why do you get stared at?"

"Don't get too many big black men in Iceland."

"But you're not very black, are you?"

Lestrade sucks in a breath through his teeth. Luce freezes for a moment, but forces a thin smile. Arkady puts down his coffee and crosses the room to stand behind Luce, rests a hand gently on his shoulder. Billy looks around the room, finally aware that he has said something _a bit not good_.

"What?"

"One of my DCs said something like that to Sally once. Only once…"

"What? His skin's lighter than yours, Greg." Billy turns to Luce. "And your hair's not…"

"I keep forgetting how rubbish you are at people, Bill. I got my hair from my dad, yes. And I know I could probably pass as Portuguese if I wanted to… well, if I was a bit shorter I could. But…" Luce pats Arkady's hand and gets up. "I've got stuff I need to sort out. I'll go and bring the bike round. See you downstairs."

Arkady lets him go. Billy frowns.

"I've upset him…"

"Da"

"Yeah. Not the first time, Bill."

"I don't get it. He's not…"

"Being black's not just about skin colour."

"And now you two are ganging up on me. I don't know what I've done."

Arkady shakes his head.

"You really do not know him. After all these years."

"I'm not good at people."

"And we make allowances for that, all of us. But Billi, think. When Hero Luziya wanted to learn about Siberia, and Cossacks, and salt mines, for school, you told her to ask her uncle Arkasha, da?"

"Yeah. 'Course. You're Siberian."

"When she needs to learn about slavery, and sugar plantations, will you send her to ask her uncle Luka?"

"Lucien's English…"

"No. Go and talk to him. Ask where he was born. Ask him why his mother's name was Thompkiss, a white man's name. Ask _why_ his skin is so light. Ask him why it upsets him to hear you say he is not really black." Arkady pushes Billy towards the door of the flat, gently, but firmly. "And listen to what he has to say." 

 

*********

 

"St Kitts. It's an island in the Caribbean. My great-grandma still lives there."

"I thought you were born in London."

"No. I was brought up here, though. My mum left the islands when she met my dad. Followed him to Portugal, but his family weren't happy about a foreign daughter-in-law, or a mixed-race grandson. Mum was a British citizen, so they came here. I was about two. I don't remember living anywhere but London."

"Thompkiss isn't a Portuguese name. Your dad didn't marry your mum…"

"No. The family thought it was shameful. They cut her off, didn't even come to her funeral. I only met my great-grandmother recently. When I thought Arkady…" Luce sniffs. "She's really old. Didn't know me from Adam."

Billy sits on the steps into the building, lights a cigarette.

"Arkady told me I was being racist. I didn't mean…"

"You made a throwaway remark about my appearance. It just showed up how little you know about where my _blackness_ comes from. It's hard for a white person to understand. You've not had the history."

"How come Arkady understands, then? Couldn't get much whiter than him."

"He's interested in me. What makes me what I am. I don't know that he understands black people generally, but he understands me. And he thinks before opening his mouth."

Billy takes a long, slow drag on his cigarette. Uses the pause to think.

"Were your family slaves, Lucien?"

Luce laughs, roughly.

"Yes, Bill. Like every other black Caribbean family. They were slaves on a sugar plantation. And my particular branch of the family were the product of a selective breeding programme. All bred for their pale skin. It was worth a lot of money; matched pairs of household boys, light-skinned parlour maids. Bred from white men, of course. Forcibly, most often. My great-grandma remembers her mother telling her…"

Billy draws in a horrified breath.

"You were _bred_ for skin colour?"

"Like animals, for selected genetic traits. I _am_ black, Bill. Inside, where it counts. Even if my hair isn't frizzy. I don't want to pass." He smiles, grimly. "I've got cousins who make a big thing of their slave heritage, and that's up to them, but I don't want to have a slave-name any more. I won't go back to St Kitts as a Thompkiss."

"Thats why you chose Yegorov."

"Yes."

Billy finishes his cigarette. Flicks the end into the gutter.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know."

"You do now. Don't forget, eh?"

 

*********

 

"I will miss you, Luka."

"It will only be two weeks. I'll be back before you know I'm gone."

"I was looking forward to seeing you in your suit at last…"

Luce sighs, looks at the wardrobe. Inside hangs the red/black two-tone mohair suit that he had had made for his wedding and never worn because it had not been quite ready in time. It has hung there for more than two years, waiting for a suitable occasion.

"I don't think I'll ever get to wear that."

Arkady grins.

"I will find a reason for you to dress up for me."

"You do that. After Christmas, though."

"All right." Arkady wraps his arms tightly around his husband's waist. "Did Billi apologise to you?"

"Yes. But I'm still not sure he really gets it."

Arkady kisses Luce's collarbone.

 

"Will it be very uncomfortable for you in Reykjavik?" 

"It's okay. I can deal with it." 

"I will go with you." 

Luce smiles in the dark. 

"I wish I could take you up on that, but one of us should show up on Saturday week. Wouldn't be fair for us both to miss it." 

"You are right, of course. But I will miss you. Come back quickly."


End file.
